On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 7:31 AM, Kenneth Gonsalves<[email protected]> wrote: > On Wednesday 08 July 2009 17:54:12 Prashant Verma wrote: >> I will appreciate if other people who have thought about this issue >> could contribute their opinion. If anyone has links to online >> articles which address this issue or online training programs, that >> would be very helpful. > > I have thought deeply on this issue and face the problems you mention on a > daily basis. Solution is very simple. The candidate should join an open source > project. If he perseveres for more than three months he will have well rounded > communication skills - a will be a better programmer. If he is unable to cut > it, then he is unfit to be a programmer and better off as a coder in some > sweatshop where the only communication skill is to say 'yes sir'.
> In open source programming, communication is through mailing lists, ticket > tracking systems, IRC and wikis. On a mailing list, if the question is not > formulated properly or the relevant information regarding platform, version, > error reports etc not given, the poster gets ignored or flamed. > > bug reports and patches are taken seriously and inadequete reports, buggy > patches, patches without tests and documentation are mercilessly attacked. IRC > is extremely helpful - if one knows how to communicate. And one learns fast. > And messing up a wiki page is the easiest way to learn how to format one. > > the main problem is that India is still a highly feudal society where people > in authority cannot be questioned. In open source, authority comes with > contribution and even the geekiest geek would not dream of getting upset if he > is questioned. > > using this method I have been very successful in churning out employable > people - from very unpromising material. There have been failures, because > some people are incapable of learning. > -- > regards > Kenneth Gonsalves > Associate > NRC-FOSS > http://nrcfosshelpline.in/web/ I do not think the strategy is sufficiently perfect. Such people should be made to write complete developer-level documentation under a mentor preferably as well (in the FOSS project). Language skills cannot be handled properly in a FOSS development environment without special mentoring. P.S. I am quoting your full mail for the benefit of some other readers. Best A. Mani -- A. Mani ASL, CLC, AMS, CMS http://amani.topcities.com http://www.logicamani.co.cc -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
